Speaking of presents, I received a number of cookbooks! I got Dreena Burton’s cookbooks; The Everyday Vegan and Vive le Vegan, and I got The Spirited Vegetarian by Paulette Mitchell, which is a book by a Minnesota author who uses wines and spirits in her dishes, and Joanne Weir’s More Cooking in the Wine Country, which has suggestions for wine with each meal.
Of course, I had to get to work and start cooking. Right away I made Creamy Raspberry Oatmeal from Vive le Vegan and loved it drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with hemp seeds.
Then I made the Banana Ice Cream from Everyday Vegan. It was so easy and we usually have frozen bananas in the freezer. What a great snack!
I also made up some chili from Everyday Vegan although it was a bit tomato-y for us. I doctored it by adding some more beans and spices. This will be for lunches this week. I guess I never took a picture of it...oops!
I made some granola from our own recipe since we have been out for awhile.
Finally, as the title of my post says, it does smell like curry in our house. We made a Tofu Curry last night. We used a recipe from Cooking Light, but omitted the chicken and potatoes and substituted tofu, which we crisped up in olive oil, ginger and garlic.
I love curry and can’t wait to eat the leftovers on this. The tofu was fantastic! We put some in the sauce and also crisped some on their own. Both versions were very good.
Our fridge is now stocked with food, so I won’t need to cook for a couple days.
Oh, on the Spinach Scare of ’06, we were lucky. Of course we had eaten it for dinner, added it to smoothies and sautéed it for lunches before the news story had come out on Friday. We threw out the rest just in case. Thanks for all our concern on it. Can’t wait for the “all clear” on spinach again!
whoo hooo on your new cookbooks! & this is the second time in as many days that i've heard rave reviews about the Banana Ice Cream from Everyday Vegan -- you've twisted my arm sufficiently, i gotta make it! :o) btw - crop share #7 is georgous!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE oatmeal. That looks so good. The spinach I had wasn't on the danger list, but threw it out anyway just to be safe.
ReplyDeleteI love curry too, but hate the house smell for days afterwards
ReplyDeleteHooray for new cookbooks and all the yummy food. Can you post your recipe for granola?
ReplyDeletehow have you been living this long without Dreena's cookbooks? You are going to love them, I'll put money on it. I look forward to seeing what you make. (I don't know the other two books, but I bet they are great as well!)
ReplyDeleteMegan the Vegan
The oatmeal looks great! I have a few that DH picked and brought in tonight... guess what my breakfast will be :)
ReplyDeleteGreat cookbook gifts!
I love your cookbooks!
ReplyDeleteI love your photos!
I love your food, especially the curry tofu. Fanfreakintastic, i have to say. The photo probably doesn't even do it proper justice. I can smell the curry now. YUMMY!
Crystal - I hope I'll be able to do some real cooking soon! I haven't been able to because I've been studying for tests. At least people think I'm nice because I'm giving them yummy baked goods!
ReplyDeleteCrystal-
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping the good food coming our way even though I haven't been able to help much lately. School will be done someday!!!
Seriously, the food couldn't get better...or much healthier ;)
Love,
Ryan
I'm glad you two were able to go to your brother's on Saturday evening. Blue Sky and Banana ice cream . . . oh, no. I'm going to the grocery store in a bit, and now I'm going to have to buy some ice cream!!! Wish I had your Banana ice cream recipe.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely going to need to get the creamy raspberry oatmeal and the granola recipe. Since I eat oatmeal and Red River cereal (hot cereal with cracked wheat, cracked rye and flax seed), these two additions are a must!!
Unfortunately, I was going to use spinach on our Trader Joe's pizza crust on Sunday evening, but instead threw it in the compost. Too bad! I miss my spinach, and I was really looking forward to trying it in a smoothy.
I'm sure the smell in your house from the curry is much better than the smell in our house from the fish we had the other night. It was very smelly Soul, and to top it off, we forgot to change the garbage that evening after throwing out the packaging. Yuck!! I love fish, but this has put a damper on my wanting any for the time being. It wasn't even good because it smelled and tasted too fishy :(
Love You - Hope the News is Good!!!
Diane
I'm also eagerly awating the return of spinach. I've been eating kale, and although it is good, it isn't quite the same.
ReplyDeleteTo freeze tofu I usually take it out of the water it came in, cut it into serving size pieces (about 4-6 from one block of tofu), then freeze the pieces individually without pressing. When I want to use the tofu I defrost it in the microwave for a few minutes (if you are anti-microwave you can leave it in the fridge or on the counter overnight or you can put it in a pot of boiling water).
Then I just try to quickly press out any excess water (there won't be much) and I use it as usual. It makes the texture so much better and chewier plus it absorbs marinade a lot better.
I love the feeling of a fridge full of food, especially if I'm in a "I don't feel like cooking, but I do feel like eating" kind of mood. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThe spinach thing is so scary. It makes you wonder if anything is safe anymore.
ReplyDeleteI eat spinach at least twice a week, mostly frozen though.
I don't understand why it is still dangerous to eat if it is cooked?? And why is frozen spinach ok? I don't get it.
Yay! Happy birthday!
ReplyDelete:D Mikaela
Great cookbooks!
ReplyDeleteYour tofu looks sooo good. I love tofu and curry.. yum yum..
I can't wait until I can by my beloved organic baby spinach again.. I miss it so much. I usually go through at least 3 bags a week.
btw, I've had 2 totally natural births and I've known many people who have too! It can totally be done! It just takes education.. I wouldn't have it any other way for me.. nothing compares to being fully present when your child is born. Several people also commented that they had natural births too on my blog.. don't let the mainstream birth culture scare you away from it if you ever become pregnant!
-melody
Spirited Vegetarian? Sounds awesome! I will have to look for it! Great post!
ReplyDeletebtw I filled another shelf on my case at home. I need to start another one... might have to do that tonight.